Tension will  drain your energy

Tension WILL drain your energy. It will make you sore. It causes inflammation and will make you walk stiffly. You WILL be tired.  And you won’t even know it.

That’s because we’re used to it. We don’t think about it. Why would we notice something different when it’s the norm? We pay no attention to it. We’re used to it.  If we got nice and relaxed then we’d notice it. Not used to that.

A few years ago I took TaeKwonDo. Got my first degree black belt. I learned so much more than just TaeKwonDo. My instructor told me time and again to relax. Took me at least a year before I ever really started listening to him about it. He tried but I wouldn’t listen.

Then one day I decided to just try it. But I was skeptical. This is a sport where power and speed is needed and you don’t get power and speed, I’d always thought, without a lot of effort. Boy was I wrong.

All the moves I had to make like punches, kicks, blocks, forms I had to do became easier. My punches were faster and easier to do. And they had a lot of snap to them. My uniform sleeve would just pop when doing a punch or block. I moved easier and more gracefully. It took less energy because everything was a lot easier to do.

I had seen others do their kicks and punches and forms and thought they looked really good. They were powerful and fast. They were clearly putting a lot into it. It looked impressive but it didn’t.  Don’t get me wrong, they did all the moves perfectly. And plenty of power. But they seemed stiff. It didn’t seem natural. It seemed like they had learned the moves and how to mimic them and did a good job of that. But it didn’t seem like an art. It was more like an act. Not something they were experiencing but something memorized.

They were not fluid and relaxed. They were not graceful or flowing. The moves were perfect but mechanical. They looked tense and being tense does not convey confidence. They were so tense it made me tense to watch them.

When you see someone that is in the flow and really good at what they do, they make it look easy. You start to think you can do it, too. But the ones I was watching didn’t make it look easy. It looked hard.

To move or bend your arm, it requires one muscle to relax while another one tenses. To move your hand up to touch your nose, you contract your bicep while stretching out your triceps.  And to move your hand out to pick something up, you contract your triceps and relax your bicep. If you wanted to move your forearm in front of you body to block a punch to your chest then you would have to contract your bicep while stretching your triceps. But if you’re tense, it takes a lot of energy to stretch those triceps. To try to stretch a muscle that is already tight.

Throwing a hard punch is all about speed. It’s hard to punch fast when you’re tensing up before you punch. You relax and punch and only tense at the exact moment that your hand hits the target. Try it. It doesn’t feel right or natural to tense up and try to move. It takes practice but not a lot and it doesn’t take long to see that you are as fast or faster, punch as hard if not harder when you’re relaxed. Only tense at the point of impact.

I also play guitar and I’ve learned what tension can do to that. I’ve always known that tension would hold you back (in the back of my mind) but it’s like I had just forgotten it and paid it no attention. Relaxing wasn’t part of my practice routine. But relaxing doesn’t just make it easier to play and doesn’t just make you a faster player. It affects your sound.  There are nuances that can be heard. When you’re relaxed the sound is more flowing and pleasing. Tension produces a rough undertone and it can be easily heard. There’s just something missing. When you’re relaxed it conveys confidence which sounds much better. You and anyone listening can pick it up. And just like in TaeKwonDo, one can hear and see your tension.

So pay attention and make relaxing an integral part of any practice of any skill you are working on. It will pay off in many ways. You’ll be better, look better and feel better. You’ll look graceful, fluid and confident. And you’ll enjoy it more.